Former NASA Administrator
Mike Griffin is unshakably opposed to switching from NASA's Ares I rocket to an
upgraded Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, or EELV.

A chief reason: crew
safety.

The Columbia
Accident Investigation Board recommended that NASA retire its aging shuttle
fleet as soon as possible. The design of any replacement "should give
overriding priority to crew safety," the board said.

"Our probabilistic
risk assessment for loss of crew on Ares I
showed it to be twice as safe - I repeat, twice as safe - as a human-rated
EELV-derived vehicle," Griffin said
recently.

"This figure of merit
was a significant factor in our decision to go with the shuttle-derived Ares I,
yet is ignored by almost everyone suggesting we make a change," he said.
"I cannot responsibly ignore it, for reasons having nothing to do with
money."

Newsman: Stick with
'single stick'

Longtime NBC
News correspondent Jay Barbree thinks NASA should stick with the
"single stick" rocket rather than shift to modified military rockets.

A Merritt Island resident who
has covered NASA for more than half a century, Barbree favors the Ares I rocket
because it is designed to fly astronauts rather than satellites.

"The thing to do is
continue on the track that they're on," he said. "The quicker they
can get the space shuttle retired and get the Orion
spacecraft built, the better off this country is going to be."

He also thinks it's time to
venture once again beyond Earth's orbit.

"Earth is a spacecraft
that's 8,000 miles in diameter, and all of us are on it. But it won't last
forever," he said. "It's our cradle. But we cannot live in a cradle
forever."

Keep our options open,
Mars urges

Charles Mars is big on
options, and he thinks the Obama administration should consider launching
NASA's Orion space capsules on military rockets already flying from Cape
Canaveral.

A retired NASA engineer who
worked on Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, the shuttle and Space Station
Freedom, Mars wants a committee to be formed to "take a look at the Delta
IV and Atlas V and see if there is an alternative" to NASA's Ares I
rocket.

NASA should extend the
shuttle program and see if military rockets might obviate the need to pay Russia
to fly U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station, the Titusville
resident said.

"We don't need to be
relying on the Russians or anybody else to help our space program," Mars
said. "To have to depend on them to take our astronauts and our logistics
up is just not good."